WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS GREAT ACHIEVEMENT?
IT WILL ALSO TEST THE MAN HIMSELF.
IT IS A TESTAMENT TO TECHNOLOGY AND HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT...
A TOOL BUILT TO CARVE A PATH ACROSS A CONTINENT...
OF EUROPEAN GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL.
[STEAM HISSING]
WILL CARRY JARED DIAMOND THROUGH THE STORY OF AFRICA.
WAS STARTING ALL OVER AGAIN.
RANCHING CATTLE AND SHEEP.
THAT MY THEORY OF GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL AROSE.
AND EVEN COLONIES ABROAD.
ARE ALMOST EXACTLY THE SAME.
THESE NATIVE PEOPLES WERE DRIVEN FROM THEIR LAND...
OF WHICH THEY WERE COMPLETELY UNAWARE.
EUROPEANS HAD DEVELOPED SOME RESISTANCE TO THOSE DISEASES.
IT WROUGHT THE SAME HAVOC ON THE KHOISAN PEOPLES.
NOW THEY LOOKED TO EXPAND.
LIKE THE PIONEERS MOVING ACROSS NORTH AMERICA AND AUSTRALIA.
BY THE VOORTREKKERS'�� DESCENDANTS.
[GUNSHOT]
YES.
[LAUGHING]
WHICH BEGAN OUTSIDE EUROPE, BUT WHICH EUROPEANS PERFECTED.
THOUSANDS OF YEARS PREVIOUSLY.
FIRE!
AS THEY PUSHED FURTHER INTO THE AFRICAN INTERIOR.
BUT THEY WERE ENTERING AN ALIEN AND UNEXPLORED LAND.
[MEN YELLING, WOMAN SCREAMING]
BEFORE THEY WERE COMPLETELY OVERWHELMED.
WITHIN HOURS, NEARLY 300 VOORTREKKERS LAY DEAD.
[BABY CRYING]
THEIR ENEMY HAD STRUCK WITHOUT MERCY...
STOPPING THE EUROPEANS IN THEIR TRACKS?
VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE KHOISAN OF THE CAPE.
THEY HAD ENCOUNTERED THE ZULUS.
A SOPHISTICATED ECONOMY AND SOCIETY.
MET THEIR MATCH IN AFRICA?
AND READIED THEMSELVES FOR BATTLE.
[GUNFIRE]
IT WAS A MASSACRE.
THE BOERS THEMSELVES SUFFERED ONLY THREE INJURIES.
GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL HAD PREVAILED.
[TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWING]
LET THEM INCREASE THE PACE OF CONQUEST.
AND TRANSPORT THEMSELVES AND THEIR SUPPLIES.
IN A COMPANY WITH SINGLE-SHOT WEAPONS.
SOME JUST AS HOSTILE TO INVASION AS THE ZULUS HAD BEEN.
TO THE WORLD'��S FIRST FULLY AUTOMATIC WEAPON.
LASTED A MATTER OF HOURS.
[MACHINE GUN FIRE]
AS FAR AS EUROPEAN INVENTIONS WERE CONCERNED.
CONQUERING TRIBE AFTER TRIBE... SETTLING WHERE THEY PLEASED.
GEOGRAPHY.
CONFIDENT THEY COULD BUILD A PROSPEROUS LIFE IN AFRICA.
[MAN YELLING]
THEIR CROPS REFUSED TO GROW.
THEIR SHOES FELL APART IN THE MUD.
Man: COME ON!
Man: COME ON, MAN!
BUT HERE THEIR ANIMALS WERE DYING.
HEALTHY AND ALIVE.
WHAT WERE THE SECRETS OF THIS STRANGE NEW LAND?
THEY HAD ENTERED THE TROPICS.
AND THE RAINY.
HAD NOT EVOLVED TO SURVIVE IN THIS TROPICAL CLIMATE.
HOW WERE THEY SUCCEEDING AS THE EUROPEANS FAILED?
[CHILDREN SINGING]
WHO HERE SPEAKS, KNOWS HOW TO SPEAK BEMBA?
MOST AMERICANS SPEAK ONLY ONE LANGUAGE.
SIMILAR TO EACH OTHER AGAIN.
FROM WHICH THE MANY LANGUAGES OF TODAY HAVE DESCENDED.
WHICH ORIGINATED IN TROPICAL WEST AFRICA.
AND THEIR LANGUAGE WITH THEM.
EXPANDING ACROSS THE TROPICAL REGION OF AFRICA.
ON THE BANKS OF THE LIMPOPO RIVER.
SIMILAR TO THE EARLIEST CIVILIZATIONS IN EUROPE.
THAT OCCURRED IN SOUTHERN AFRICA.
THAT HAD SPREAD ACROSS SOUTHERN AFRICA AND BEYOND.
AND TAKING IT ALL THE WAY TO THE INDIAN OCEAN COAST.
TRADING AS FAR AFIELD AS INDIA.
AT THE HEART OF THIS FLOURISHING TROPICAL CIVILIZATION.
HAD FALLEN VICTIM TO TERRIBLE DISEASE.
AND THE KHOISAN OF THE AFRICAN CAPE.
HOW WAS THIS POSSIBLE?
THEY HAD NEVER ENCOUNTERED THEM BEFORE.
KILLING EUROPEANS.
OF TROPICAL INFECTIONS AND DISEASES...
HAD DEVELOPED RESISTANCE TO MANY OF THESE TROPICAL GERMS.
THAT BESTOWED AN IMMUNITY FOR LIFE.
AND THERE WAS MORE.
AGAINST ONE OF THE MOST VIRULENT DISEASES ON EARTH...
MALARIA.
THAT WAS NOW OVERWHELMING THE EUROPEAN SETTLERS.
TO HELP THEM AVOID INFECTION IN THE FIRST PLACE.
AWAY FROM THE WET, HUMID AREAS WHERE MOSQUITOES BREED.
AFRICANS COULD LIMIT THE LEVEL OF MALARIA TRANSMISSION.
IT WAS AN EXTRAORDINARY ACHIEVEMENT.
IN PLACES INFESTED BY MOSQUITOES.
THOUSANDS DIED.
AND THAT AFRICANS HAD EMERGED TRIUMPHANT.
IN A VAST CULTURAL DIASPORA.
OF EUROPEAN GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL IN AFRICA?
FOR THIS MIGHTY TROPICAL CIVILIZATION?
WOULD NOW ENTER A WHOLE NEW AGE.
MINING COPPER AND OTHER MINERALS...
AND TO LABOR FOR EUROPEANS.
INTO THE VERY HEART OF THE TROPICS.
. CONSTRUCTED FOR EUROPEANS TO EXTRACT AFRICA'��S WEALTH..
BUILT ON THE RUINS OF AFRICAN CIVILIZATION.
LIE AT THE HEART OF MY STORY.
FERRYING BACK TONS OF COPPER AND OTHER MINERALS.
ITS NATIONS ARE FREE AND INDEPENDENT.
IN MODERN AFRICA?
BUT EVEN HERE THE REALITY OF MODERN AFRICA IS CLEAR.
THAT WOULD HELP US UNDERSTAND THE PLIGHT OF ZAMBIA TODAY?
AND BUILT ON THE EUROPEAN MODEL.
MOST OF THEM ARE REALLY BELOW FIVE YEARS.
AND THE RATE OF INFECTION HAS INCREASED DRAMATICALLY.
UP TO SEVEN CHILDREN A DAY DIE IN THIS HOSPITAL.
[BABIES CRYING]
Manyando: BECAUSE OF THE FACT THAT...UH...
[CRYING]
AND EXPERIENCING IT AT FIRST HAND.
AND...
TO BE IN A PLACE WHERE GERMS ARE IN ACTION.
Diamond: 30 YEARS AGO, I SET OUT ON A JOURNEY...
THE ORIGINS OF INEQUALITY IN OUR WORLD.
AND RESTED ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF OUR PLANET.
WHICH GAVE ONE GROUP OF PEOPLE A UNIQUE ADVANTAGE IN HISTORY.
EVOLVED LETHAL DISEASES AND GERMS.
TO CONQUER CONTINENTS AND TO BUILD EXTRAORDINARY WEALTH.
TO SHAPE THE HISTORY OF OUR WORLD.
ARE STILL SHAPING THE WORLD TODAY.
AND DRIVING THEM INTO POVERTY.
AS POOR AS ITS PRESENT?
THAT GEOGRAPHY AND GERMS COULD BE.
TRANSFORMING THEIR ECONOMIES AND WAY OF LIFE.
SHOWS WHAT AN UNDERSTANDING OF GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY CAN DO.
AND ABLE TO LIVE A FULFILLED LIFE.
BUT HERE IN AFRICA THERE ARE HUMAN FACES ON IT.
BECAUSE THEY'��RE THE BIGGES T QUESTIONS OF HUMAN HISTORY!